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Sep 30, 2015

Theme: A Five-Card Trick - CARD is scrambled five ways and concealed in five theme entries as indicated by the circles.

17A. Blanket containers : CEDAR CHESTS. Are they all cedar?

29A. Burrowing beach denizens : SAND CRABS. Not much bigger than your thumb according to the Monterey Aquarium website. Not really Food! material then .. darn.

43A. Lollipops, e.g. : HARD CANDY. Here's the spokesman for the Hard Candy Association if there is such a thing:

57A. Where much classical music is heard :PUBLIC RADIO. Here's a little something from the Berlin Philharmonic.

4D. Rolex 24 at Daytona, e.g. : ROAD RACE. Cousin of the more well-known (to me at least) Le Mans 24 in France, or "24 Heures du Mans" as it is officially known.

and the reveal:

39D. One of two baseball playoff teams determined next week
by a "play-in" game in each major league, and a hint to this puzzle's
circles : WILD CARD. Wikipedia can do the job of 'splaining the machinations of these MLB games.

Gooooood Morning Crossword Corner! Steve here with a very poor Adrian Cronauer impersonation.The circle puzzles seem to be popping up a lot on Wednesdays, I've blogged a few recently. The constructor shouldn't be tough to guess - it's a baseball-inspired theme, so it's not a stretch to posit that it might be C.C!

Neat theme - I thought at first that the 4D entry was something of an odd man out until I realized that it's balanced by the reveal at 39D. Cool stuff.
Across:

1. Wild hogs : BOARS

6. Wild animal : BEAST

11. Bird in a cage, often : PET. A menagerie trifecta to kick things off.

14. Pinhead : IDIOT. How many angels can dance on the head of an idiot? Discuss.

36. Knock on Yelp : PAN. I used Yelp a lot when I'm traveling in unfamiliar territory to find restaurants. You need to take the one-star rants and the five-star gushes with a pinch of salt. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.

37. Mall bag : TOTE

38. Given (to) : PRONE

39. Responded to reveille : WOKE. I was a little slow to respond to my reveille this morning - I was at a six-course wine dinner last night. Three hiking miles later and a mug of coffee and I was better.

40. Former Energy secretary Steven : CHU. Thank you, crosses.

41. No-frills : PLAIN

42. Hog lover : BIKER. Fun clue. Here's a couple of famous examples:

45. On the ball : ALERT

46. Like reporters, by trade : NOSY. Are reporters nosy? It has a slightly different connotation in my mind than professional investigation.

50. Arranged locks : DO'S. I get a haircut when it reaches the point I can arrange my locks, I don't even own a comb.

53. Strips on a sandwich : BACON. Food! A pub close to where I live has a veggieburger on the menu, and proceeds to state "Bacon can be added for $1.00" which seems to rather miss the point.

56. Frazier foe : ALI

60. Spoil : MAR

61. "Too rich for me" : I'M OUT. A poker player's exit line when the stakes get too high.

62. Castle in the 1914 musical "Watch Your Step" : IRENE. I learned this from a crossword I blogged a while ago - she must have been one heck of dancer to still be clued more than 100 years later!

63. "Ciao!" : BYE

64. 1975 Pulitzer winner for criticism : EBERT. The great movie critic Roger Ebert who sadly passed in 2013. He spent his entire career with the Chicago Sun-Times.

65. Put two and two together : ADDED

Down:

1. Media Clic Ice maker : BIC. These things - never heard of 'em!

2. Often emotional works : ODES

3. Help on the Hill : AIDE

5. Parade venues : STREETS

6. "That's hogwash!" : BAH

7. Big name in organic foods : EDEN. Caused a bit of a stir in 2013 with a controversial stance on certain healthcare provisions for their employees.

8. Furthermore : ALSO

9. Isn't active, as equipment : SITS IDLE

10. "King of the Nerds" airer : TBS

11. Sight-unseen buy : PIG IN A POKE. Great expression. Researching this, it transpires that the poke is a bag, and the piglet you think that you're buying turns out to be a dog or a cat when you open the sack. French "poque" gives us "poquette", a little bag, or our "pocket". Here endeth the lesson.

12. Stretches of history : ERAS

13. Lab work : TEST

18. React to a kitchen bulb, maybe : CRY. Not because the lights went out, but onion-peeling woes.

22. Word after go or so : FAR

25. Miley Cyrus label : RCA. Wouldn't have had a clue without crosses. Just missing a "D" for another wild card.

26. Hidden problem : CATCH

27. Hawaiian Airlines greeting : ALOHA

28. Shoot back : RETURN FIRE

29. Leftovers preserver : SARAN. Not if you forget to put 'em in the fridge, which I frequently do.

41. Lenovo products : PC'S. My new laptop is a Lenovo. It weights about half as much as the old Dell, which makes my travel a little easier!

42. Munich's state : BAVARIA. Here's a question for you - the soccer team is F.C. Bayern München, but is anglicized as Bayern Munich. Why not Bavarians Munich? We English-speakers do weird things to proper names.

44. Small point : DOT

47. English channel, briefly : BBC. The public broadcaster came in for a lot of criticism during the last British elections for being overtly biased, to the point that there is a weight of opinion that the corporation should lose its charter.

Happy Birthday toPje (Pat) and her husband! I don't know any couple in real life who were born in the same day and same year. Pat was born in the morning, her husband in the afternoon. Hope it's a day full of surprises, Pat.

71. Metaphor for time ... and, when divided into three words, puzzle theme found in the four longest across answers : SANDS. S and S

Argyle here. A reveal, really? Hardly necessary. Do you suppose he looked at SANDS and decided it could be parsed S and S? It is interesting that there are nine different length entries. Four long columns; the two longer ones cross three of the themes and the two shorter ones cross two theme entries. Overly easy but not USA mindless by any means.

4. Mouse catcher : TRAP. Board game with cheese-shaped tokens, "Mouse Trap". "The Mousetrap" is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. It opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. Will it come to Broadway?

5. Arch city : ST. LOUIS

6. Catchers' gloves : MITTS

7. __ vez: Spanish "once" : UNA "At once" or 58D. Without delay : NOW

8. High-ranking NCO : MSGT. (Master Sergeant)

9. Gumbo cookers : STEW POTS

10. Pacific and Atlantic : OCEANS

12. Bay window : ORIEL

13. Pays attention to : HEEDS

18. "Be glad to" : "SURE"

22. Effortlessness : EASE

23. Garbage haulers : SCOWS

24. News anchor Couric : KATIE

27. Bad way to run a yacht? : AGROUND

30. Legal thing : RES

32. Indecent : LEWD

34. Vittles : CHOW

36. Take issue (with) : ARGUE

37. "Tell It to My Heart" singer Taylor __ : DAYNE

39. Decelerated : SLOWED UP

40. Chinese chairman : MAO

42. Molecule part : ATOM

45. Royal son : PRINCE

46. "SNL" segment : SKIT

47. Biblical tower site : BABEL

48. Alamogordo's county : OTERO, New Mexico. Update: Otero County was created January 30, 1899 from the eastern end of Doña Ana County, the southern portion of Lincoln, and southeast corner of Socorro County. Otero County was named after Miguel Antonio Otero, New Mexico's governor at the time (the first Hispanic surnamed governor of New Mexico Territory, served 1897-1906). His father, by the same name, had served as Territorial Representative to Congress from 1856 to 1861.

Sep 27, 2015

25A. Important exam for shady lenders? : SHARK FINAL.
Shark fin. We used to have the expensive shark fin soup at our annual
company New Year's dinner. It's supposed to be aphrodisiac and good for
your skin.

26. Like sons and daughters : FILIAL. Filial
piety (Xiao) is an extremely important virtue in Chinese culture.
Respecting and taking care of your parents and elders are instilled in
us from an early age.

Merl
Reagle's memorial service will be held today (Sept 27, 2015) from
5pm-8pm. The gathering will be at the University of Tampa’s Vaughn
Center,
9th floor, and all are invited.

(Added later: Here is a short clip of Merl at the movie "Wordplay". Thanks, Tony!)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to those who celebrate! This is my favorite Chinese holiday after Spring Festival. It always takes place on August 15th (full moon) in Chinese lunar calendar. The sweet mooncakes are available only for a short period of time.

Sep 26, 2015

Don
G returns for the last Saturday puzzle of the month for the second time
in a row for the LATimes. No theme this time, although we have three
of four long answers that are food related. One Natick, which I had to
use red-letters to solve, but what can you do~? Likewise, there were a
few 'meh' answers that made me grit my teeth, but it's Saturday, so I've
come to expect them. Threw caution to the wind on a few clues, and
glad to see they were solid WAGs. Two 12-letter spanners, and two
11-letter climbers;

56. Place for an ornament : HOOD - reminds me of a vulgar joke - email me if you care to hear it

57. Short missions? : OPs

58. Power __ : NAP - I take a power nap from about 11am - 1pm everyday between UPS and the restaurant work

59. "Take heed, __ summer comes ... ": Shak. : ERE

Splynter

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to Dennis, who was often the first to post on the blog
before he moved to Florida. I have fond memories of talking to him
frequently about baseball cards (He has a Bowman Mickey Mantle 51),
American slang and various blog comments. Rich's acceptance of the
puzzle I made with Dennis is one of the highlights of my puzzle career.
How's everything, Dennis?

Sep 25, 2015

Amy J. comes to Friday after many Sunday and Monday LAT appearances. A conventional Friday with humorous clue/fill combinations based on the nature of certain professions. All are witty, but not laugh out loud for me. The puzzle also had some unknowns, and some very difficult cluing in places as well lots of longish fill like HOFFMAN, KODIAKS, RETORTS, UP TO PAR, PRISTINE, STEAMERS, FULLY GROWN, IN THE STARS. I will be interested to see what you all thought of this puzzle with no gimmicks, just challenges; so let's go.

20A. The joke at the audiologists' convention __ : FELL ON DEAF EARS (14). Is this insensitive?

57. Lightest meson : PION. Someone please explain to me as my knowledge is just from wiki. In particle physics, a pion (or a pi meson, denoted with the Greek letter pi: π) is any of three subatomic particles: π0, π+, and π−. Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson

58. Ex-TV host Stewart : ALANA. Married to Rod and George Hamilton

59. Kick back : LOLL.

60. Required bet : ANTE.

61. "R.U.R." writer Capek : KAREL. With JzB's write up Wednesday, everyone should know this author and his famous play which introduced the word ROBOT.

62. Language that gave us "bard" : ERSE. If you want the 'simple' answer, wiki says Erse can be: an alternative name for any Goidelic language, especially Irish, from Erische. a 16th-19th Century Scots name for Scottish Gaelic.

63. Old Royale 8's : REOS. An impressive looking car.

64. Gambling aids: Abbr. : SYSTSems. I know many a poor man who designed a 'perfect' blackjack system.

Sep 24, 2015

Theme: How about a LIFT?The only question on this fine puzzle was whether Timothy was going to group the first or second words of the starred clues below for the theme.Across starred clues1. *Subject of a San Francisco museum : CABLE CAR- A mobile National Landmark37. *Unpretentious : OLD SHOE- The billionaire "Oracle of Omaha" fits this description

Down starred clues12. *Torque-providing component : DRIVE SHAFT- Gets the RPM's from the engine to the wheels

28. *Big band genre : SWING MUSIC- Miller, Kaye, Goodman, et al

It turns out he was going for the second words using this reveal:66. Office building feature, which can precede the ends of the answers to starred clues: ELEVATOR - (LIFT to our resident Brits)ELEVATOR CAR - Here's one for your, uh, car

16. Reluctant : AVERSE17. Five-pointed, say : STARLIKE18. Coordinated health program : REGIME - I prefer the word REGIMEN here. Harvard comma redux, anyone?19. Ticked-off state : IRE20. Honorary law deg. : LLD - Doctor of Laws (Canon and Civil), hence the two L's. Can also be honorary21. Debussy contemporary : RAVEL - Most of all remember what happened in this scene with RAVEL's Bolero in the background

22. December purchase for many : TREE - It's been artificial TREES for us our entire marriage24. Singer Lenya married to Kurt Weill : LOTTE - Kurt's wife LOTTE LENYA is immortalized in his most famous song Mack The Knife

36. Deflategate letters : PSI - Per Sq. In. As it turned out, much NFL ado about nothing this off season

40. 1970 Jackson 5 chart topper : ABC - "Simple as ABC, 1, 2, 3, Do Re Mi, Baby You and Me"41. __ Andreas Fault : SAN - The plate on the ocean side is carrying LA north @ 1.3 "/yr. It could be a suburb of San Francisco in a few million years!

42. Works in un museo : ARTE - Art in a Spanish Museum43. M16, for one : RIFLE 45. Sharpen : EDGE - At the nursery, we used honing stones to put an EDGE on our knives47. Half a Western couple : ROY - Roy and Trigger?48. Less than broadcast : HINTED - Literal me prefers not to have something HINTED at49. Polite title : MADAM - Dolly played a MADAM named Miss Mona in this film

Crosswords LA Tournaments
will be held on Oct 24, 2015 (Saturday) at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
You don't need to be a wizard solver to participate. As you can see, they have four
brackets for different skill levels. Or you can just be a spectator,
solving at the same time with other competitors but your grids won't be
scored.

It's an annual charity event Elissa Grossman started in 2009 to raise money for Reading to Kids. I'm honored to be one ofthe constructors this year. The editor (Puzzle Wrangler) is the amazing Todd McClary, a regular contributor to the CrosSynergy puzzles.

I
hope our readers in LA area will attend the event and mingle with your
favorite constructors, bloggers & fellow solvers. Will you be there,
Steve?